Backcountry Interpretation: Black Mountain and the 2nd Colorado Volunteers

Backcountry Interpretation:

Black Mountain and Company B of the 2nd Colorado Volunteers

The year is 1866 and four soldiers in uniform from Company B of the 2nd Colorado Volunteers practice drill in the field of Rayado, under the dry New Mexican sun. They wear dark blue wool coats with gold buttons, light blue trousers, and brogans on their feet. Over their shoulders and across their chests are slung cartridge boxes and haversacks. They don't all have hats, nor do they have guns, but in the sword sheath of one soldier is a rusty bayonet. Standing in line and at attention they listen to Commander Ross shout: Dress right! Right front! Right face! Forward, march! Right wheel, march! Ready, holt!

What started out as a mountain-man camp in the early 1970's has evolved into a post Civil War outpost, occupied by Union soldiers who actually lived in Cimarron and protected the Santa Fe Trail. One of only two primitive backcountry camps, Black Mountain has no road where a truck can deliver food and supplies: they must be hauled in on burros. Nor does it have running water and refrigeration. Secluded, the Black Mountain staff is interp. in its purist form, and a prime example of Philmont's interpretive program.

Officially, the program started in the early 1970’s, with mountain-man, logging, and mining camps. Yet, some remember camps being interpretive even before the program was established; as early as 1966, when the first trek went through Baldy Town. Either way, the backcountry camps have been doing interp. for over 30 years. But that's history. The real question is why. Why dress up like people from the past, going through the stress of costumes and lines and characters? And why strip away the comforts of modern day technology to live by inferior means of survival in Philmont's backcountry?

In March of 1862, Union forces of the 2nd Colorado Volunteers, including Captain Ford's Independent Company (which would later be known as Company B, clashed with Confederate forces from Texas in Glorieta Pass, near the Sangre De Cristo Mountains of NM. Outnumbered 900 to 1,100, they found themselves losing the battle...

"The history of this area is so rich and we probably preserve the history better than anyone else in the area," Associate Director of Programs Doug Palmer said.

...When part of the Union forces snuck over the mountain and behind the Confederates, the tide began to turn. They bayoneted their horses and burned their wagon train...

"From the very beginning the B.S.A. taught history, and I always thought the interpretive program was a way to teach history." However, "It has to be done right," he said. ...Without supplies, the Confederates retreated. "Some of them got so hungry they were chewing the leather straps on top of their boots," Assistant C. D. of Rayado Henry Ostrander said. "It was just savage. These hardcore [soldiers] got 'er done."

"As much as possible, we want to tie our interpretive programs into actual occurrences that happened either around Philmont, in Philmont, or things that are so important to that era."

The Battle of Glorieta Pass started when Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley decided to take over the gold fields of Colorado to fund the war for the South. If they would have won the battle, the Confederates may have won the war. Without the Black Mountain interpretive camp, many scouts wouldn't know this important history.

Achieving historical accuracy, however, has been a work in progress for the backcountry interpretive camps, and especially for Black Mountain. "They wanted to have two black powder camps in the south country, but they wanted to have a different time setting to differentiate the programs," 2002 Black Mountain P.C. Todd Behum said. "So it's still the same program, we still do black powder and blacksmithing, it was just moved up 30 years, so it's 1866 instead of 1830," he said. "Starting in 2001, it became the Civil War outpost."

Yet switching from a mountain-man camp to a Civil War outpost wasn't a smooth transition. "I guess the program really took off in 2002," 2002/2005 Black Mountain C.D. Martin Gibson said. "Some of the guys were kind of mixed up until 2005. There was always one guy in grey." And that was the problem; at first all they did was change the interp. clothes, wearing both North and South uniforms. Then in 2005, they all dressed up in grey: a Confederate army. Even the guns were out of place. "They always shot the .50 cal. Muzzle loaders (like Miranda), but in 2003 Black Mountain started shooting .58 cal. Muzzle loaders. So that's a little bit more time period correct. It's a lot bigger bullet," Gibson said.

For Black Mountain, becoming historically accurate and assuming an actual identity took the studying of 2006 C.D. Seth Mangini. He was the one who researched Company B of the 2nd Colorado Volunteers, and brought them back to life at his camp. With the drill book "Hardee's Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics," Mangini incorporated Union army drill routines into the program. In short, Mangini's dedication gave the soldiers at Black Mountain an identity, which is now in its second year of assumption.

In November 1863, Company B of the 2nd Colorado Infantry became Company A of the 2nd Colorado Calvary. During the summer of 1864, they fought "bushwhackers" (Confederate guerillas) in Missouri, and in November, fought more Confederate forces under Confed. General Sterling Price's invasion of Missouri. In December of that year, they escorted supply wagon trains across Kansas, occasionally fighting off Indians, and in April 1865, begun to muster out. The last of them were mustered in September 1865.

So despite living in 1866, the Black Mountain staff is continuing their quest for historical accuracy. "I told them to start doing research. Doing research in libraries; reading books," Black Mountain C.D. Ross Robinson said. "There's only one or two books that actually, specifically talk about the war out here," he said. "The battle of Glorieta Pass is the equivalent of Gettysburg. It's just doing research, reading books, spending time in the Seton Museum, and talking to guys like Henry Ostrander who works at Rayado," he said. "Philmont provides a lot of research."

In turn, this research creates a greater focus on detail, which makes for a more realistic interpretation. "Part of the way we keep up the mystic of a Civil War site is that the campsites are bivouac, their trail meals are rations, not trail food, and the campfire's a watch fire," Robinson said. "We refer to our dress in the older terms: our shoes are brogans, pants are trousers, suspenders are braces, etc. We are portraying 1866."

At Black Mountain, however, portraying Civil War soldiers also takes a certain mentality. "We don't like our campers staying up late around the campfire singing 'Kumbaiya'; it's 'drop down and give me 20,'" Black Mountain P.C. Rob Fabian jokingly said. "We don't play with them." Fabian is a former Ranger who once trekked from base camp, carrying two 12-packs of Dr. Pepper in his pack and one extra-large pizza in his hands, all the way to his crew at Black Mountain, in the rain. It is this level of dedication that is found in the Black Mountain staff, and that makes Philmont's interpretive program a success. No one loves the camp or the mountain more. "It's a hardcore camp for hardcore guys," Fabian said.

Essentially, teaching history through interpretation works because, as Doug Palmer put it, "It's a great thrill for a kid to walk into a camp and be transformed into that time." However, Philmont's backcountry is also an ideal atmosphere for the interp. programs, especially at the primitive camps, like Black Mountain. "Its so easy to sell the 1860's time period because there is no road, no water system, no propane, and the only piece of modern technology is the radio and a small solar panel, which are kept out of site," Behum said. "You show up there and it looks like 1860, whereas other camps might have a truck pull up to the cabin or [crews] walk by a solar panel on their way to the program," he said. "All the goals of the interp. camps are to portray the [chosen] time period, and without those distractions, it's that much easier to live the lifestyle."

But how do staffers actually feel about surrendering the comforts of modern technology for an entire summer to live an interpretive lifestyle in Philmont's backcountry?

"It's actually a common misconception that the primitive camps are hard to live at. I think it makes you appreciate what you really need to survive," Behum said. "You are living the life," he said. "You don't have these modern conveniences, but then you aren't living like you do have them."

"No refrigeration means you have to be very selective in what order you eat your perishable foods, and with no mechanical water system, you have to draw your own water and purify it yourself. At black mountain, you get it from the N. Fork Urraca Creek," Behum said. Also, because there are no roads leading into Black Mountain, the staff gets two burros to hike one week's worth of food and supplies from Beaubien to their camp; a six mile round trip through the backcountry. "You normally get a couple gallon milk jugs full of ice for your food and most of your food comes frozen," Behum said. "The frozen food and ice are stored in coolers in a six-foot deep cold hole under the tack shed. It stays about 55 degrees down there and the coolers help keep it a little cooler than that and keep rodents out of the food," he said. "But since its warmer than freezing, ice will melt and the food will thaw as the week goes by, so the trick is to eat meat that will go bad first while they're still frozen, like chicken and ground beef, and then some whole meets, like steak, and processed meet, like lunch meet, for later in the week," he said. "Normally, on the last day for dinner, we'd make what we called 'whatchagot-stew', which was a stew of whatever we had left and some canned foods."

Such inconveniences are common in the backcountry's primitive camps, but together with the interpretive program, staffers can easily be drawn into a more dangerous situation: they must be careful not to cross the fine line into insanity. "Days off are a very good thing at Black Mountain, because having the chance to go back to base camp and take a shower, or calling someone on the phone, keeps you connected to the real world," Behum said. "As much fun as it would be to spend the entire summer living at Black Mountain cabin, I think you'd go crazy if you didn't step out of character and take it easy for a couple of days," he said. "I've never seen anyone get cabin fever out here, but I think it could happen, particularly at Black."

However, staff members at primitive camps aren't the only ones confronted with the harsh realities of backcountry interpretation. Paul Imhof was a Black Mountain P.C. in 2006, when the camp assumed its Union identity, and this summer he is a P.C. at Miranda. "The biggest difference is that I can park my car 20 minutes from Miranda. But at Black, I was three hours from my car. So days off will be easier at Miranda," he said. "Either way, I'll have to leave the cabin to get water. Either way, I'll cook on a wood burning stove."

Despite the sacrifices Behum, Imhof and the rest of the backcountry interpretive staff must make, their outlook isn't so bleak. "It's fun for me too. It's plain old fun," he said. "It helps if you can bring your own stuff, like the trinkets I wear. I brought my own bear claws, my own belt, and my own bag (haversack), because Philmont has its own pants and shirts, but the more random junk you wear, the better you look."

As for directing Philmont's interpretive program, Doug Palmer has his own, personal motivation: to undo the damage done by Hollywood. "A lot of people have warped ideas of the settlers of the West. They think it was only done by gun slingers or outlaws, but it was actually settled by honest people," he said. "The first thing they did when they settled a new town was build a school and a church."

Palmer takes pride in the program as well. "Philmont's interpretive program is unique to the BSA. Nobody does it like we do it," he said. "It's different from what the kids are usually used to at scout camp."

So when it comes to the "why" of Philmont's interpretation program, the answer is really quite simple: "Philmont is the pinnacle of all scout camps, so we want to give them something a little bit different than what they get back home," Palmer said. "Scouting has always been teaching values through historical perspective."

works cited:

www.colorado.gov